Recover PSTs after WinXP user deletion (Outlook 2003)

Hi all,

One of our users with administrator privileges deleted the WinXP account he was working with.
He didn't realize Outlook stores the PST files within the Documents and Settingsuser... directory.
Now it seems the whole Documents and Settingsolduser directory has been deleted.
That means the PSTs have gone with the user, right? Is there any way to recover the PSTs <img src=/S/exclamation.gif border=0 alt=exclamation width=15 height=15>? <img src=/S/exclamation.gif border=0 alt=exclamation width=15 height=15>?

I imagine what the answer is, so I've shut down that PC in case we need to resource to file recovery stuff.

Re: Recover PSTs after WinXP user deletion (Outlook 2003)

Unless the user regularly backed up his profile folder, it is as you fear: the .pst file was lost with the profile folder. If you (or he) is lucky, a file recovery utility may succeed in retrieving it.

Re: Recover PSTs after WinXP user deletion (Outlook 2003)

Thank you, Hans.

If I right click on My PC, Properties, Advanced Options tab, Users Profile configuration, I see an Unknown user profile that is 3.80 GB large. It must be some Windows bug/issue, but it feels as thought our 1GB PST is calling us for help <img src=/S/sad.gif border=0 alt=sad width=15 height=15>.